Friday, 16 April 2010

Thai buddhist monks gather with "Red Shirt" protesters in a commercial district of Bangkok. Thailand's government have urged "Red Shirt" protesters to return to negotiations as the army cleared abandoned armoured vehicles from Bangkok's streets after deadly weekend clashes.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai "red shirt" protesters brought in supplies to their base at an upmarket shopping district in the capital on Thursday, which they have vowed to make the final battleground in a quest to topple the government.

Despite the calm in Bangkok as it celebrated the final day of Thailand's three-day new year holiday, political analysts said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's days were numbered and warned the risk of a military coup was escalating.

Financial markets reopen on Friday, and analysts expect shares to fall again after a 3.64 percent plunge on Monday following savage street fighting at the weekend in which at least 22 people were killed.

"We aren't making any move in the next couple of days as we will be busily putting facilities in place for our brothers and sisters after they return from the countryside," red shirt protest leader Nattawut Saikua said.

There seems no quick solution in sight to the protest campaign, which has lasted more than a month, and it looks set to hit growth in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley calculates economic growth this year could be cut by 0.2 percentage point due to the impact on tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of gross domestic product in the "Land of Smiles" and employs 1.8 million people.

A bigger hit of up to 0.6 percentage points of GDP could come from the hit to consumer confidence in the capital which has borne the brunt of the fighting.

The government has forecast 4.5 percent growth this year if the protests were not prolonged.

A taste of the economic damage came from a tour operator group that said hotel occupancy rates in the capital were under 30 percent, less than the usual 80-90 percent.

"We are bleeding continuously as tour cancellations are made non-stop," Charoen Wangananont, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, told local cable news network TNN.

On Langsuan road, close to the protest site, a hotel porter dragged designer luggage down a small alley way to bypass roadblocks.

"Soon the hotel will be empty. It's almost a ghost hotel now," said the porter who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said occupancy rate at his hotel had dropped to 5 percent.

The road is home to the Grand Hyatt, the Four Seasons, and Marriott Courtyard among other luxury hotels and service apartments.

ABSENT PM

The police and army did not intervene to prevent the thousands of protesters from gathering and were not in evidence on Thursday after another peaceful night in the Thai capital.

The red shirts, mostly supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, want Abisit to quit immediately have said they will use their base in the Rachaprasong business district as a "final battleground."

Despite the calm, there appeared to be little chance of a peaceful resolution of to the conflict, the worst political violence in Thailand since 1992.

As the red shirts sought to consolidate their base, pro-government factions readied to take to the streets on Friday, saying that thousands would march in support of the army.

"We want the government and the military to perform their duty amid the crisis...We hope that they can resolve all the problems by the end of this week," said Tul Sitthisomwong, an organizer for a pro-government movement.

Abhisit has been largely absent from the media, ensconced in a fortified army base on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Government Spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said they believed there were gunmen hiding among the protesters and that Abhisit would remain in his army base.

"The situation is not normal so he (Abhisit) probably cannot talk to the press daily but he will communicate with the public from time to time," he said.

But his chances of political survival were seen as bleak.

"Badly damaged by the military response, Abhisit now has no other options than to go to the country or resign, both of which will set Thailand on course for an early election," risk consultancy Control Risks said in a report published on Thursday.

"If threatened further by political instability, created for example by snap polls, the threat of military leaders launching a coup would rapidly escalate," it said.

Thailand has had 18 coups in the past 77 years, most recently in 2006 when Thaksin was ousted.

Thaksin, who is in exile after he was sentenced to jail for corruption, said on his Facebook page that he was in Saudi Arabia and refuted rumors that he was ill.

"I have been to Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from April 10-12 at the invitation of a prince of Saudi Arabia to provide consultancy for projects to build two new towns," he wrote.

"So the rumor that I am ill isn't true," he said on his page (http://www.facebook.com/thaksinlive).

The city was calm on the final day of Thailand's new year holiday but political analysts said Abhisit's days were numbered and warned the risk of a military coup was escalating.

"He is not intending to do it," Korn, a fellow student of Abhisit at Oxford, told Reuters in an interview when asked whether Abhisit would dissolve parliament after violence last weekend killed 22 people.

"It would be very negative for the country in the long term."

The protesters, gathered at an upmarket shopping district, said they would step up their fight to topple the government on Saturday.

Red shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn said they would stage mini-rallies at all Thai television stations to complain about what they said was unbalanced coverage of the violence.

"They have been very biased against us and we want to explain our position so they cover both sides more fairly," he told Reuters, adding that they merely want to hand letters to station executives and would not besiege buildings.

The red shirts stormed the compound of a satellite transmitting station last week to try to force the government to resume broadcast of their TV channel, which has been blocked on and off since a state of emergency was declared on April 7.

Police Major Gen Amnouy Nimmano told Reuters police would step up security at television stations.

Financial markets reopen on Friday when shares are expected to fall after a 3.64 percent plunge on Monday following the weekend fighting.

There seems no quick solution in sight to the protest campaign, which has lasted more than a month, and it looks set to hit growth in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley calculates economic growth this year could be cut by 0.2 percentage point due to the impact on tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of gross domestic product in the "Land of Smiles" and employs 1.8 million people.

A bigger hit of up to 0.6 percentage point of GDP could come from the loss of consumer confidence. The government has forecast 4.5 percent growth this year if the protests are not prolonged.

A taste of the economic damage came from a tour operator group that said hotel occupancy rates in the capital were under 30 percent, compared to the usual 80-90. [nSGE63E06S] Bars in the famous Nana plaza district were noticeably quiet.

"We are bleeding continuously as tour cancellations are made non-stop," Charoen Wangananont, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, told local cable news network TNN.

On Langsuan Road, close to the protest site, a hotel porter dragged designer luggage down a small alley to bypass roadblocks.

"Soon the hotel will be empty. It's almost a ghost hotel now," said the porter who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said the occupancy rate at his hotel had dropped to 5 percent.

The road is home to the Grand Hyatt, the Four Seasons, and Marriott Courtyard among other luxury hotels and serviced apartments. Occupancy at the Marriott was just 8.5 percent, a receptionist said.

ABSENT ABHISIT

The police and army did not intervene to prevent protesters from gathering and were not in evidence on Thursday.

About 2,000 counter-protesters gathered near the city's Victory monument calling for an end to the red shirts' campaign.

Waving national and royal flags, they shouted "Come out. Come out," calling for more people to join them.

"One month is too long now and there was violence so we came together because we had to do something," said Tul Smithisomwong, a group leader, who denied links to rival yellow shirts.

Nearly 290,000 people signed a Facebook page that said "I am sure we can find more than a million Thais who are against dissolution of parliament."

The red shirts, mostly supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, want Abhisit to quit immediately and have said they will use their base in the Rachaprasong business district as a "final battleground."

Abhisit has been largely absent from the media, ensconced in a fortified army base on the outskirts of Bangkok.

"Badly damaged by the military response, Abhisit now has no other options than to go to the country or resign, both of which will set Thailand on course for an early election," risk consultancy Control Risks said in a report published on Thursday.

"If threatened further by political instability, created for example by snap polls, the threat of military leaders launching a coup would rapidly escalate."

Thailand has had 18 coups in the past 77 years, most recently in 2006 when Thaksin was ousted.

Thai soldiers remove an abandoned armored personnel carrier in front of Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Thursday, April 15, 2010. Anti-government protesters began emptying one of their encampments in the historic part of Bangkok and moving to their second base in the commercial heart of the Thai capital.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

via CAAI News Media

By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK – Thai troops cleared the gutted remains of armored carriers Thursday after anti-government protesters vacated the site of last week's bloody clashes and shifted to an upscale shopping district to intensify their campaign to oust the prime minister.

The Red Shirt protesters vow their new encampment in the Rajprasong shopping area, several miles (kilometers) from the old camp in Phan Fa, will be the final battlefront in their bid to have Parliament dissolved and new elections held.

A failed attempt by security forces to flush the Red Shirts from Phan Fa on Saturday ended with deadly street battles that left 24 people dead in Thailand's worst political violence in nearly two decades. The government's disaster management center said a 24th person died of injuries Thursday.

The crisis has deeply divided this Southeast Asian nation into color-coded factions, threatening to sink an economy that had recently started to revive. The Red Shirts are bitterly opposed by the Yellow Shirts who support the government but have over the past few months stayed on the sidelines.

Prime Minister "Abhisit Vejjajiva is the one who must make an immediate decision now (to dissolve Parliament), and if he doesn't we will escalate our pressure," said Weng Tojirakarn, a Red Shirt leader. "We will keep on demonstrating ... Abhisit must go into exile."

Tensions were likely to build after the four-day lunar New Year festival of Songkran ends Friday.

The Red Shirts — mainly rural poor who accuse Abhisit of coming to power illegally — arrived in Bangkok from the provinces in droves a month ago and occupied the Democracy Monument in the Phan Fa neighborhood in the old part of the capital.

Thousands more took over the posh Rajprasong area, lined with shopping malls and five-star hotels, on April 5.

"We moved out of Phan Fa for the safety of our protesters," protest leader Nattawut Saikua said. "And more importantly, the army would not be able to have any more excuse for clamping down on us. We've already cleared the area for them."

"Rajprasong will be the last battlefront between us and Abhisit. Logistically we'd be more efficient. We'd better organize ourselves. Our troops would then be much more stronger," he said.

After the Red Shirts moved out of Phan Fa, soldiers arrived with cranes to lift the burned out hulls of armored personnel carriers and trucks that were set on fire by protesters on Saturday. The remains were placed on trailer trucks, draped with tarpaulins and driven away.

Municipal workers removed red banners that had been wrapped around the Democracy Monument, a gigantic dome-shaped structure. They used high-pressure water hoses to rid the sidewalks of cooking oil stains, sprayed disinfectant and replanted flowers and hedges. Volunteers cleaned graffiti from the monument, including vulgar abuses against the prime minister.

A group of government supporters dubbed the "Pink Shirts" gathered for the second straight day Thursday to voice their opposition to dissolving parliament. About 500 people turned up after issuing an appeal through social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

According to the INN radio news network, Pink Shirt leader Tul Sithisomwong vowed to gather at the Victory Monument roundabout daily until the Red Shirts disperse.

At loggerheads in the yearslong struggle for power in Thailand are the rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — who was ousted in a 2006 coup and went into exile ahead of a 2008 conviction for corruption — and the traditional ruling elite represented by Abhisit and his allies.

The coup was followed by elections in December 2007 that were won by Thaksin's political allies. But they faced months of street protests by "Yellow Shirts" who accuse Thaksin of corruption. Although the pro-Thaksin government did not bow to the protests, it was forced out of office by a court decision that the Red Shirts found dubious.

The resulting political vacuum was filled by Abhisit's opposition coalition in December 2008. The Red Shirts claim Abhisit, whose supporters include business leaders, the military brass and members of the urban middle class, took power illegitimately because he didn't win any election.

Since it was founded, the Red Shirt movement has become more broad-based, claiming to represent the interests of the country's poor against a selfish elite, rather than just seeking Thaksin's return.

Thaksin's relationship to the group has become more ambiguous, though he remains an icon to most Red Shirts.

"My feeling is that Thaksin is far more concerned with ensuring that any Red Shirt achievements work directly to his advantage than he is with ending the crisis," said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. "The Red Shirts, too, face a real moment of truth, to work out the place of the exiled premier in what has become a social movement that is far bigger than just Thaksin."

150 former Khmer Rouge gathered last week at the compound of their last leader, the late general Ta Mok, on the outskirts of Anlong Veng in northwestern Cambodia.

Anlong Veng was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge and only came under government control in 1998. Some of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious leaders are still highly regarded here.

The former cadres came to the gathering to give their opinions on what reconciliation and justice mean to them, and to discuss the psychological trauma from decades of war.

Preventing atrocities in future

Daravuth Seng, who heads the Center for Justice and Reconciliation that organized the meeting, said that despite the trauma of the Khmer Rouge’s four-year rule – when up to two million people died – and the subsequent two-decade long civil war, precious little reconciliation work had been done in Cambodia.

“People in general are very much social animals, and they want to come back into the fold,” Seng said while explaining the background for the gathering. “So we have to be really careful in not putting them into a context where they are saying things they don’t necessarily mean, but yet leaving the language open enough so that meaningful reconciliation can happen.”

A Cambodian-American who trained as a lawyer in the United States, Seng added that another reason for the gathering, which was funded by the German development service, was to try to understand why the Khmer Rouge cadres had followed the path they did.

Knowing this could help prevent future atrocities of a similar kind, he explained.:“If we are to say never again, we really need to understand both sides, to understand the way these folks perceive the world.”

Concern about UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal

The participants told the meeting that when it comes to justice, they believe the UN-backed war crimes tribunal that is underway in Phnom Penh should try only the five former senior Khmer Rouge who are currently in custody.

“We should only try those top revolutionary leaders. We should not try those middle or lower ranking officers because they are only the followers of the leaders,” one former cadre said in clear reference to recent news that the tribunal is looking to prosecute five more suspects.

Some people in this former stronghold worry that they could end up being among the five. They have warned that the tribunal could destabilize the reconciliation process.

Remorse is a sign of hope

Unsurprisingly, most of the participants of the gathering rejected the term “former Khmer Rouge”, which has become synonymous with murder and persecution. They said it unfairly tainted their children’s future prospects.

Overall, Daravuth Seng said the event had gone better than he had originally hoped. People had turned up and spoken about what they wanted and what they feared.

He said that one woman had even cried and told him she regretted some of her acts. The fact that her remorse seemed genuine was a sign of hope, he added.

A group defending residents facing eviction from a lakeside development in Phnom Penh say they will continue demands for an investigation into a World Bank project.

Men Kimseng | Washington, DC

Thursday, 15 April 2010

A group defending residents facing eviction from a lakeside development in Phnom Penh say they will continue demands for an investigation into a World Bank project.

The Minnesota-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions says residents at Boeung Kak lake, which is slated for a multi-million dollar development, lost land they had lived on for years, despite a World Bank land management project.

The World Bank’s inspection arm submitted an internal report to the bank’s board earlier this month, concerning the Land Management and Administration project, but its conclusions are pending.

“We’ll continue to call for full inspection, in order to correct the current situation regarding the LMAP, as well as to remedy past violations of human rights that have occurred in the context of this project,” Bret Thiele, a legal expert for the group, said in an e-mail to VOA Khmer last week.

Some 4,000 lake residents are facing eviction to make way for commercial and residential properties under a government deal with a private developer. But many residents say they have a right to the land, having lived there for 20 years.

More than 900 families have been removed to an area far on the outskirts of the capital. Some families took lump-sum compensation. Still others want their homes to be developed along with the area.

A World Bank representative said its board of directors has until April 14 to look into recommendations on whether to investigate the land management project, which the CHRE says failed to protect the residents.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Phirumya upset Cambodian officials with remarks he made at a US university last week.

Sok Khemara | Washington, DC

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Photo: AP

Preah Vihear temple is seen near the Cambodian-Thai border.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Phirumya upset Cambodian officials with remarks he made at a US university last week.

Addressing students and others at Johns Hopkins University in a lecture on Thai politics, Kasit said Thailand had three issues pending with Cambodia: questions on the inclusion of Preah Vihear temple to a Unesco World Heritage list; a 2001 sea border agreement; and an exchange of prisoners.

Kasit said Cambodia’s management plan of Preah Vihear temple would have to include a map that Thailand considers unlawful.

The temple is at the heart of a border dispute between the two neighbors.

“We see this as putting the horse before the cart, no the cart before the horse, and that created some displeasure on the part of Cambodia,” he said.

Meanwhile, a border drawn in the sea was done more through “political expediency” than international law and is now deemed unlawful by the current government, he said.

Kasit said Thailand was still holding four Cambodian prisoners as it awaits step-by-step amnesty approval from the government.

Cambodia’s border committee head, Var Kimhong, said Thailand should leave the sea border alone, as it has been agreed on. He also said Kasit should push Thai parliament to adopt the minutes of a border committee meeting between both sides that clarifies the border.

Thailand is considering returning its ambassador to Cambodia, following a slight thaw in relations between the two countries, a senior Thai minister said Monday.

Sok Khemara | Washington DC

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Photo: VOA

Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri, speaks to VOA, while on a visit to Washington for a nuclear summit.

" Such assurances had made the government “very happy,” said Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri, on a visit to Washington for a nuclear summit. "

Thailand is considering returning its ambassador to Cambodia, following a slight thaw in relations between the two countries, a senior Thai minister said Monday.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said assured Thailand last week that Cambodia would not be used by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra as a political base to attack the current government, which is weathering a prolonged protest in Bangkok.

Such assurances had made the government “very happy,” said Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri, on a visit to Washington for a nuclear summit. “So now we are considering sending our ambassador back.”

Trairong told VOA Khmer in Washington Monday that Thailand wanted to normalize its relations with Cambodia, but he would not give a date when an ambassador would return.

Both sides withdrew their respective ambassadors in November 2009, following the appointment of Thaksin as economic adviser to Hun Sen. Cambodia and Thailand remain at odds over the border near Preah Vihear temple and a sea boundary agreement.

A Cambodian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said Thailand had not yet sent an official letter concerning reinstating an ambassador. Cambodia will send its own ambassador back “15 minutes” after the Thais return theirs, the spokesman said.

Dengue Fever, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based blend of garage rock and the Cambodian rock variant that it spawned in the 1960s--the lost Khmer Rock that was rooted out by the Khmer Rouge--will perform a free concert in Phnom Penh on May 13 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cambodia.

The extraordinary event, which is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, is part of an international tour also including stops in Scandinavia, Germany, Turkey, China, and Vietnam--where two dates in Ho Chi Minh City have been added. It will be held at the Cambodian Vietnamese Friendship Park, and preceded on May 10 by a screening at the Meta House of Sleepwalking Through The Mekong, a documentary of Dengue Fever's first trip to Cambodia in 2006 as the first band to perform Khmer Rock since the fall of the Khmer Rouge--to be followed by a panel discussion.

Additionally, the band will perform a benefit concert in Phnom Penh on May 11 in support of Cambodian Living Arts--an organization supporting the revival of traditional Khmer performing arts.

“The U.S. Embassy is thrilled to be able to host Dengue Fever,” said Carol A. Rodley, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia. “I cannot think of a better way to kick off this celebration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cambodia than to have an acclaimed American band performing music influenced by some of the great Cambodian artists of the 1960s. Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pan Ron and many other artists perished more than 30 years ago under the Khmer Rouge, but their musical legacy lives on to inspire and delight new generations of listeners, not just in Cambodia but around the world.”

Dengue Fever is captivating Cambodian songstress Chhom Nimol, guitarist-vocalist Zac Holtzman, his brother Ethan Holtzman on keyboards, bassist Senon Williams, drummer Paul Smith and horn player David Ralicke. Nimol was discovered by her bandmates performing in nightclubs in Long Beach—home of the world’s biggest Cambodian community outside of Phnom Penh.

The band has released three four albums (including the soundtrack to Sleepwalking Through The Mekong), along with a collection of lost Cambodian classics, Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia. Their music has also been featured in numerous films and TV shows including City of Ghosts, Must Love Dogs, Broken Flowers, True Blood and Weeds.

The group's 2005 album Escape From Dragon House included an original song, "“One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula,” that was a tribute to the lost Khmer rockers--in particular Huoy Meas, who was forced to sing and walk around in circles naked until dropping dead from heat exposure and thirst.

“All musicians--anyone who was educated—were killed,” said Ethan Holtzman in an interview. “All the artists that influenced Dengue Fever perished. But as we started growing as a band we realized how important this music is for Cambodians, and that no one was really playing it over here."

The band has become a major attraction at international music festivals and is currently in the process of preparing its next album for release later this year.

“During our first gig at a dive bar in L.A. I imagined a future of smokey clubs--while dreaming of a headlining tour across the States," said Williams. "Now that we’ve arrived at performing an open air concert in Phnom Penh commemorating such a beautiful legacy, I'm stunned. I'm feeling the goodness.”

I recently took a cooking class in Battambang. This is a new thing — only recently has Cambodia’s Wild West seen enough tourists to fill such a class. And only in the past few months have Keo “Toot” Touch and his wife, Nuon Nary, opened their modest little wood-and-concrete kitchen to inquisitive eaters.

The class (two Germans and I) began with a tour of the morning market — a frenzied maze of sticky, fragrant corridors filled with cross-legged women bearing vegetables spread across tiny tables and sidewalk cloths. Vendors sell from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., then retire in the sharp morning heat. Everything here is “very fresh,” Toot said. “The people who sell here come from the organic fields.” By that, he meant small-scale farms that use few chemicals and produce what grows naturally according to the seasons. This is as much a matter of economics as health, as many Cambodian farms are too poor to afford chemicals or systematized irrigation.

I learned many things on our sweaty walk. I learned of a “quinine plant,” s’dao , with reddish-green leaves and tiny white flower buds, which are consumed as medicine. “If you catch malaria, you eat this one,” Toot said. “You boil it, you drink it, and two or three weeks later, the malaria goes away.” (Either the malaria perishes, or….)

I learned, according to Toot, that most tomatoes in the Battambang market are imported from large Vietnamese or Thai plantations, which spray too many chemicals for his liking. He avoids them.

And I learned that a man can ask a chicken vendor to take a whole bird and carefully carve a skinless, boneless breast for a choice cut of meat in a foreigner-friendly curry. (I’m seeing more breasts on Khmer menus these days. In years past, most meat was chopped to smithereens with a bone-crushing cleaver to create a style my husband and I call “grenade chicken.”)

I also learned that mice, piled for sale on the sidewalk, are barbecued, grilled or fried. And that in order to kill a king cobra, the reptile’s mouth is sewn shut, its tail is chopped, and the creature is hung to drain its blood. “You drink king cobra blood to make strong energy,” Toot said. And the meat: “best taste.” Toot learned to eat snake, mouse, dog and frog while working in sugarcane fields as a child under the Khmer Rouge. “I was so hungry. Everybody starving. That’s why we eat everything.”

But then I learned, back in his kitchen with the lovely Nary, that the couple has one of the best recipes for traditional Khmer amok (curried fish steamed in banana leaf) that I have ever eaten anywhere. Period. (It has a lot of garlic, and I’m a fiend.)

So I’ll get right to the point and present that recipe here:

Cambodian fish amok

(From Nary Kitchen, Battambang)

Ingredients:

200 grams freshwater fish

2-3 lemongrass stalks, sliced and chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 cm cube galangal

1 cm cube zingiber (kaempferia pandatura, a rhizome in the ginger family that adds a distinctive flavor)

1 cm cube turmeric

1 tsp shrimp paste

200 ml coconut milk

Nhor leaves (You can substitute Chinese kale)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp bouillon or equivalent in chicken stock

4 dried red peppers (mild)

2 Kaffir lime leaves

1 hot Thai bird chile

a few sprigs of cilantro

Banana leaves to shape into a bowl for steaming (can substitute ceramic)

Method:

To make the paste, or kreung as it is called in Khmer, finely chop the lemongrass using the bottom 10 cm of each stalk. Put it in a mortar. Smash the garlic with a knife and peel; set aside. Add to the mortar galangal, zingiber, turmeric, 1 lime leaf and a pinch of salt; pound for 15 minutes (or until smooth), gradually adding the garlic.

Wash and soak the dried red peppers, then chop finely. Add to the kreung along with the shrimp paste; pound more.

Thinly slice the fish, then put in a small pot. Add chicken stock or bouillon, sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir and press the fish with a spoon so the flavors are infused into the flesh. Add the kreung, then gradually the coconut milk, saving a bit for the cream. Cook until the liquid turns into a thick paste. Remove from heat.

Make banana leaves into a small bowl using toothpicks to hold their shape (or use a ceramic bowl). Tear the nhor leaves, removing the stems; add to the bottom of the bowl. Cover with the mixed fish paste and cook in a steamer for 25 minutes.

To make coconut cream, boil 40ml of coconut milk with a pinch of bouillon until it turns thick. Spoon over the steamed amok. Garnish with one thinly sliced chile and one thinly sliced Kaffir lime leaf and cilantro. Serve with rice.

May we also take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks for your great kind support and encouragement. We would like to inform you about the ongoing activities of SOS Children's Village Angkor Siem Reap.

SOS Children's Village Angkor Siem Reap has been developing from day to day. At present there are 145 children in the care of the village in 14 family homes of whom 89 are boys and 56 are girls. Moreover 12 boys are outside in the youth house. Health issue becomes very important for children that draw our attention to need for diseases prevention immunization (Hepatitis B, Measles, small pox, mump, polio Etc) duly completed during this year.

Total 155-children have been rolled in different academic stages as 4 children are studying at nursery, 62 children in Primary School, 64 children in Secondary school; 24 children in High School, 1 youngster in University and another 2 children are preschooler. That was a good news for us that 1 child has passed high school exam and now have joined college in the Major of Electronic. He is a scholarship student which was awarded the scholarship by the director of National Technical Training Institute that is the well-know Institute in Cambodia. He moved to SOS Youth House Phnom Penh to study at National Technical Training Institute in Phnom Penh city. Every evening, he teaches his brothers and other youths in youth house such as mathematics, Physic, chemistry and computer. SOS Vocational Training Center has almost completed providing practical training course to five batches. For the first four batches, there were 74 students graduated from our training centre, all of them were employed with suitable salary and mostly in Hotel, Companies and got their own business in Siem Reap province. On October 2nd, 2009 we arranged the global peace game for the children and youth in the village and participate by other non-governmental organizations, local authorities and SOS Children, youths, mothers, co-workers and teachers from all projects about 200 people. The program was a friendly competition football aimed at strength& cooperation each other. Children and youths of SOS children’s village Siem Reap divided into two teams, namely team: Blue (wearing blue shirt and short) and team white (wearing white shirt and red short) for football match. Through the first half team: Blue kicked ball into goal for 1 score, and in the second half team: blue kicked ball into goal for one more score. As the result, team Blue got 2 scores and team White got 0 score. After the football was over, the Karate Do shown by SOS children and youths had started. In the Karate show, they have done very good and at full strength. This makes every guests congratulated to their unity and solidarity. During 2009 all the children have enjoyed holiday activities. We celebrated the holidays in different way one thing that we have made constant is to reward the children who have excelled them selves at school scoring high marks in their studies . To celebrate this achievement we have this year decided to organize a trip to the different tourist places in Kamping Pouy Resort in Battambang province which is about 40 km from the provincial town and other trip to Sihanouk Ville beach which is in Kampong Som province.

Your kind help enables us to perform excellent work. Therefore on behalf of all Co-workers, mothers and children, we would like to extend our warm thank and best wishes for a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Cambodia is a country with a more traumatic past than most. Recent decades have seen civil war, followed by genocide and more civil war. Despite a growing economy and rapid development, mental health workers say the psychological scars have yet to heal.

Cambodia suffers from high rates of mental illness, and very little treatment.

Psychiatrist Sotheara Chhim, who heads the Cambodia office of Dutch aid group, the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, or TPO, says the country's dark past bubbles up in an exceptionally high rate of mental illness.

"In my opinion I think the past plays a very important role in attributing to the problem…. I think every Cambodian is like a glass carrying some water, meaning the traumatic past. If more water is put in, the glass fills easier than an empty glass," says Chhim.

A study by TPO found 35 percent of Cambodians suffer from some kind of psychiatric problem, from mild disturbance to full-blown illness.

The legacy of past conflict means more than a quarter of the population shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and over 10 percent suffer major depression, even though most of the population is too young to remember the darkest years.

But there is little treatment. Only one percent of the government's health budget goes to mental health. For a population of 14 million people, there are about 40 psychiatrists, and only around 10 of them outside the capital Phnom Penh.

At the mental health ward at a hospital in the southern town of Kampot, Dr. Kim Vutha complains of a shortage of funds and medications.

He says Cambodians, particularly in rural areas, usually seek out mainstream treatment as a last resort after trying temples and traditional healers. In villages, it is quite common to find the seriously ill chained to posts or kept in makeshift cages.

Satya Pholy, a counselor in Phnom Penh, says that despite the prevalence of mental illness, many Cambodians simply do not want to acknowledge the problem.

"There's a stigma in Cambodian society," he said. "If someone talks to a counselor or goes to a psychologist or psychiatrist, 'Oh he's crazy, what's wrong with him?'"

He says traditional culture often plays a role in how mental illness is address.

"It goes back to animism and Buddhism and Hinduism, where most illnesses come from the unbalance of the wind, the soil, the fire and the water. Also, if you offended the spirits of the mountains or of the trees, you know, then the spirit will try to get you back, have revenge, make you sick," he explains.

Foreign aid organizations can not fill the gap. Sotheara Chhim says the economic crisis has meant less money for his organization, which travels around the country doing mental health outreach.

"I think mental health gets less attention, left behind in Cambodia. [The] Ministry of Health used to say keep saying mental health is one of the priorities but I don't think it's a priority," he said.

Sotheara says donor cuts forced him to fire 50 employees late last year.

Among the small government efforts to deal with the crisis, 10 new psychiatrists are being trained every year. But people working in the field, such as Sotheara, say this is still not enough.

Betty Muscato's father, Air Force Master Sgt. Calvin C. Glover, died in Cambodia in 1968, and now that his remains have been found, the family with strong WNY ties looks forward to the honor of his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Derek Gee / Buffalo News

Family of flier killed in Cambodia awaits an overdue honor

http://www.buffalonews.com

via CAAI News Media

By Susan Chiappone

Chautauqua Correspondent

April 15, 2010

An 11-year-old girl’s wait for her lost father will end next month, almost 42 years to the day that his plane went down in Cambodia.

Betty Muscato, now 53 and living in Cassadaga, will travel to Hawaii and then to Arlington National Cemetery for a long-awaited goodbye to a father, Calvin C. Glover, she last saw in 1968.

Glover’s remains were found just a year ago in Cambodia.

“I remember when the plane went down,” she said of that still-vivid day on Okinawa, where her father was stationed. “It was May 22, 1968, and I came home from school and heard the news.”

Her father was a master sergeant and flight engineer with the Air Force and had been in the military for more than 10 years when his plane was lost.

The news that he was missing in action arrived just a day after Betty’s mother, Deanna, had celebrated a birthday and on the same day received the most welcome of surprises — a card from her husband from overseas.

Glover had apparently sent the card before his C-130 cargo plane took off on a supply mission.

“He must have mailed it before the flight left; either that or someone found it and sent it for him,” Deanna said.

She may never know, but the card served as a bittersweet reminder of the relationship that grew out of their letters to each other.

They first met in Silver Creek — she was a local girl, he was already in the Air Force — and began a letter-writing courtship that continued until their marriage.

After the crash, Deanna left Okinawa and moved her family back to the States, not really knowing whether Glover was dead or alive.

She knew that her husband had been declared missing and for many years wondered whether he was a prisoner of war. Reports coming out of Cambodia during the Vietnam War suggested that many military personnel were being held hostage there.

“I received letters and information from the military from time to time that they were searching for the plane,” Deanna said.

The news that Glover’s remains had finally been found arrived last May, just as Deanna was about to undergo open-heart surgery.

She delayed her trip to Hawaii so she could recover from her surgery and help her family save money so Betty could travel with her. She also hopes Glover’s mother, Alice Montgomery, now 90 and living in Ohio, where her son was born, will join them.

A year later, Deanna considers the triple bypass successful and says she’s ready for a journey that will bring her husband’s remains back for a military burial at Arlington.

The ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. May 19, three days shy of the 42nd anniversary of Glover’s plane going down in Cambodia.

Deanna also hopes to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for the first time and is prepared for a deeply emotional experience. Glover’s name was added to the wall when the military declared him missing and presumed dead, years after his plane went down.

If there has been an obstacle to the family’s journey other than Deanna’s health, it has been the cost of traveling to Hawaii and Washington, D.C.

The military is covering Deanna’s expenses, but the rest of the family, including Betty and Glover’s mother, are responsible for paying their own way.

The Glover family has deep roots in Western New York, including family still living in Cassadaga and Silver Creek.

Deanna recently moved to North Carolina, and she has a son, Michael, who lives in Maryland.

Her first stop will be Hawaii for a day of tours and a brief ceremony, and then on to Washington.

“We were told we had to go to Hawaii to meet his remains and then go on to Washington,” Betty said.

Despite the hurdles, Deanna, who never remarried, thinks a military burial is the appropriate way to honor Glover, who was proud of his Air Force service.

“He deserves to be buried at Arlington,” she said. “I feel like it will be a good closure after all these years.”

For others, that closure may never come. Deanna said her husband may end up being the last of his crew to be identified, since the military is ending its search of the site in Cambodia. Four other members of the flight crew remain missing.

Deanna said she was told that at a later date, there will be a memorial service honoring the entire crew.

An international rescue attempt has saved the life of a Cambodian child at Dr. KM Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai.

Chennai, April 13, 2010:

An international rescue attempt has saved the life of a Cambodian child at Dr. KM Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai.

An Australian architect touring Cambodia noticed a young child who was very blue and gasping for breath. She was moved by the child’s plight and contacted Ms. Ann-Marie Spicer of the International Medical Registry, a part of the Children's First Foundation, an Australian organization. Two and a half year old Hourmoni Pitou, was suffering from severe heart dysfunction and efforts were immediately initiated to offer the child a new lease of life. The organization contacted Frontier Lifeline, to which it had earlier sent 2 children for similar treatment. Arrangements were made to fly the child down to Chennai but the child was denied access to the flight because of his breathless condition which made him very blue due to impaired blood circulation. A second flight request was also turned down owing to the risks of flying the tiny tot and a medical attendant was made mandatory.

Frontier Lifeline responded to this emergency by flying one of its pediatric cardiologists down to Cambodia in order to offer the guarantee of medically safe passage for the child and he was brought to Frontier Lifeline under the expert care of the pediatric cardiologist without incident. A local representative of the Children's First Foundation continued to coordinate the Foundations' efforts in Chennai. The child was diagnosed with Pulmonary Atresia with single ventricle with PDA dependant circulation. He underwent critical surgery where the pulmonary artery was re-constructed and a Bi-directional Glenn was done. Recovery was rapid and without incident; Hourmoni will now fly back home without the need for an accompanying doctor. He will undergo a second surgery at the age of 4-5 yrs.

ABOUT DR. K. M. CHERIAN’S FRONTIER LIFELINE HOSPITAL

Dr. K. M. Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital is a hospital that believes in human ethics, transparency & quality cardiac care with international standards. Frontier Lifeline offers amenities in cardiac diagnosis, treatment, research and education at a reasonable cost with round-the-clock individual care. With ‘Service before Self’ as a guiding motto, the hospital has a spectrum of a skilled team comprising of sincere and dedicated doctors, cardiac surgeons, nurses and paramedical staff. Applying advanced technology, the latest equipment, progressive healthcare and research, new avenues open out a kaleidoscope of life-saving and cost effective solutions to numerous heart diseases.